yeah, the officers and the nurses the doctors, everybody. thank you so much. for the great work. >> thank you. >> -- that you have done for all of us. >> "morning joe," be safe out there, stick around now for chuck. sandy storms through the northeast causing massive flooding, knocking out power for nearly 8 million people, one of the worst storms ever to hit the region, leaving billions of dollars in damage in its path. meanwhile, president obama and governor romney canceled more campaign plans, essentially freezing the race in place with just seven days to go. could sandy reset the tone of the race in the final hours? or even delay the election? and that broken construction crane, folks, it's still dangling, dangerously high above the streets of midtown manhattan. the latest on that and much more in minutes. we've got that live briefing from mayor michael bloomberg that comes up in this hour. good morning from washington. it's still one week until election day, believe it or not,

tuesday, october 30th, 2012, this is the "daily rundown," i'm chuck todd. let's get right to what we know this hour. at least 18 people have been killed, early estimates, but the damage from sandy at somewhere between $10 billion and $20 billion, but that figure could rise as people assess in the daylight. nearly 8 million people waking up without power this morning. sandy made landfall as what's being called a post tropical cyclone on the southern coast of new jersey not too far from atlantic city at about 8:00 p.m., sustained winds of 80 miles per hour, that's hurricane force, folks. and hurricane-force winds extended up to 175 miles from the center of the storm. tropical force storm winds spread out 485 miles from the center, a 13-foot storm surge flooded battery park city in lower manhattan and that broke a record that had been set in 1821.

records were shattered in sandy hook, new jersey, where tide levels also topped 13 feet. the metropolitan transportation authority is calling this the worst disaster in the 108-year history of the new york subway system, and the flooding isn't over. hundreds of people are being evacuated this morning after a tidal gate broke in northern new jersey flooding three towns there. the national weather service says the potomac river is likely to experience its worst floods in 16 years beginning tonight. the flooding is expected between hancock, maryland, and washington, d.c. flood waters along the new york city coastline made it difficult for first responders to reach a massive six-alarm fire which began overnight in queens. in new york alone, nearly 2 million people are without power. con edison intentionally, actually, had to cut power to tens of thousands of folks in order to try to protect equipment from rising water. then there was an explosion at a substation in manhattan, that caused -- that was caused by

flooding, flying debris knocked out power to another 250,000 people. also last night, a backup power system failed at nyu medical center and that forced the evacuation of all 215 patients to nearby hospitals. that's everything we think we know right now. now, coastal flooding, destructive winds, heavy rain actually will continue as sandy heads inland. let's get the very latest on the storm's path. we go to the man, to the iron man for us lately, nbc news meteorologist bill karins. where does sandy stand now? what's going to be affected? and where is it heading? >> sandy is going to be more than anything else a nuisance today. people wanting to get out of their houses, people who want to start this cleanup, getting power back on, they want to see the crews rolling into their towns. the storm is just still too big, and it still hasn't moved all that much. it moved inland about 12 hours ago, it's still in pennsylvania, it's not one of those storms in and out in a hurry. it's going to linger all day

today, we can't get the helicopters up to see how bad the damage is in some areas, it's still too windy. look at the size of this storm. it is cloudy all the way to the hudson bay, down to north georgia, the clouds have pushed down through south carolina. and now we have rain all the way from maine in this green rain and band goes all the way back to the portions of the ohio valley into kentucky. now, here's the cruel part. there's a lot of cold air rotating around what once was a hurricane. someone told me they said to me on twitter, eight hours after the storm made landfall, we had snow in eight different states. you never hear that sentence before. it's ridiculous, the worst of it by far west virginia, mountainous areas of kentucky and also virginia, that's a way of blizzard warnings telling people not to travel. there are power outages because of downed trees and also snowing pretty good now in areas of ohio. you're getting more than you thought and it's windy too. here's the points to watch this morning. high tide occurring as i speak right now along long island, battery city, downtown portions

of lower manhattan. a the little high tide up in connecticut. it's not going to be as bad as last nikknight. and the cold air, look at the windchill in washington, d.c., it's 34, and you have hundreds of thousands of people without power down there. they really can't stay in their houses with temperatures like this, not going to see much sun today, and just a general idea, i showed the new york city extended forecast, this is pretty much for the entire region. the power outages and the workers will really get to work on thursday. even on wednesday, halloween, we're still going to have breezy conditions with on and off showers, and then looks like, chuck, the upcoming weekend will be just fine for the power restoration. what a storm. this will probably be the storm of our lifetime, you know, that we go through in this region of the country. >> hyperbole aside, i heard al roker call it the storm of the century, it may end up that way. there's a lot more of this century to go. but let me ask you this, the issue of the rising water, the sort of delayed impact of this

storm when flooding could take place two, three, four days after it, where are the greatest fears? i know we have fear down here because of the potomac. >> yeah, the potomac river was all along. the storm really followed the book in the forecast. the best chance for the rainfall flooding was going to be the maryland, delaware, greater baltimore, washington, d.c. area, you picked up about 6 inches of rain on average. and that's all collecting in the small streams and creeks and heading to the big rivers. the potomac, we expect to have moderate flooding, slight possibility gets to the major category, not going to be a widespread, everyone's going to have to evacuate type flooding situation. the river flooding is not really going to be the legacy of this. once we can get past the wind today and the last high tide cycle, we can start to think about cleaning up. >> all right. bill karins in new york for us. bill, thanks very much. well, the storm came ashore in atlantic city cutting it off from the mainland. chris christie has told people there to stay where they are

until rescue crews can come reach them. on "morning joe," he said his top priority is ensuring there's no more loss of life. >> we have three urban search and rescue teams with over 50 men and women who are in atlantic city right now rescuing people. we have urban search and rescue teams, as well. so far the loss of life has been minimal, thank god, but we have lost three folks, two in my hometown, actually, two parents who a tree hit their pickup truck. hit their pickup truck, they had their 11-year-old and 14-year-old children in the car, they survived, but both parents were killed. >> in addition to atlantic city, several other shore communities also took direct hits from the storm. look at this video, point pleasant beach at the height of the storm. ron allen is in point pleasant beach. all right, ron. i saw you on nightly news last night. obviously a much different situation this morning. you were there and you watched

the storm come in, what do you see this morning? >> well, you see utter devastation, chuck. that sand dune we were standing on last night is completely obliterated. it was about 12 feet tall, it was about 30 yards wide and it is gone. and the result is that all the sand here is from the ocean and from the beach. it's about 100 yards in that direction before you get to the ocean. but last night it came rushing up here and completely wiped out these shore fronts, ocean front buildings that are here. this is the hotel we were using as a base yesterday. it's completely gone. here in the foreground, you can see, this looks like a window frame that was blown out of a building. there's all kinds of boards. there's plants, fences, this neighborhood is completely devastating. there are power lines hanging down. we have no power. phone communications are very difficult, as well. and, again, last night when those dunes breached the ocean just came rushing up these streets that run perpendicular to the ocean.

we were staying in the hotel where the camera man is now. and the water was at times up to at least waist deep and we were concerned it was going to completely encircle the building we were in. for a while, we weren't sure if we could get out or not. going in that direction, there's a lot of inland flooding, as well, police have the area blocked off so people can't come in this direction. but if i walk over here and the camera man pans, you can see down here where the ocean is. it's a good 75 to 100 yards from where we started there. and more devastation. again, right about there at the tip of this tree at the end of this street is about where that dune was and where we were standing last night. and as you can see, it's completely blown out. and all the stand is about -- i guess it's about -- and it goes that way for about 50 yards or so and then there's just water,

flooding water as far as the eye can see. >> how many people are there? how many people heeded the warnings to just get off the coast? >> reporter: some people here stayed the night and they're okay. it's unclear whether they can leave or not. they don't have power, they have supplies, and these are hearty souls who hunkered down, wanted to be here for whatever reason, for the excitement of it all, the thrill of it all. that wasn't advised, but they stayed anyway. in atlantic city, it's a much more dire situation where you have people in a much larger urban area that is completely cut off. they closed the main roads last night hoping people wouldn't get in there. i think that's a much more dire situation. the governor indicated there are a number of search and rescue operations going on. if you're in this circumstance, it's a difficult place to be. >> ron allen in point pleasant,

new jersey, thanks very much. well, president obama declared a major disaster in new york and long island opening up federal funds, fema resources to the state. the storm killed at least 18 people, two of whom from long island. peter king who represents parts of long island. also chairman of the homeland security committee. congressman king, i want to start with what you can tell me about the damage on long island. >> actually, this is by far the worst storm we've had at least since 1938. it's just in my district alone, long beach is basically entirely cut off, they have no sewage, they have no power, they have no water. there's going to be a mass evacuation of long beach. and there were are number of fires, seven fires i'm aware where the houses burned to the ground, fire department couldn't get to them. a man's house blew up last night. thank god his neighbor next

door, the entire house blew up. the water's been contaminated in places. freeport, there's probably 90% of the people without power in the -- on long island. so this is, again, by far the worst. we have entire streets under water, 5, 6 feet of water. it's 5 feet of water everywhere. i can go community by community, what it turned out to be is that the worst-case scenario in each instance seemed to come true. >> let me ask you this, relief efforts right now. can it even begin? i assume you've done your best to tour the area. can it begin yet? or are we going to be delayed another 24 hours? and have you started to let folks know there could be delays in the cleanup? >> they're trying to get the crews out in the streets. getting trees off the roads,

power company is going to try to get started with restoring the power. but, again, coast guard helicopters going up, i think within the next hour or so to get a full extent of the damage. but the power company really up until now hasn't been able to do anything because of the winds. we're talking about days, weeks before we see power restored. >> and so far, everything working the way it's supposed to as far as relief efforts or the coordination between federal, state, and local? >> it really is. right now as i'm talking to you, all of the local and state officials are here at fema right here in the room. so, no, there's perfect coordination at federal, state, and local level. in fact, if there's any good thing to come out of this -- emergency -- and information is abo absolutely superb. >> well, we caught about 75% of

what you just said there. i know getting out by phone is very difficult. i'm going to let you go, congressman, i know you have a lot of work to do. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> we're going to have more, of course, on the recovery efforts from sandy all throughout the hour and after the break. and if it's safe for you to do so, please feel free to share some photos that you've taken of sandy. tweet us using the hash tag msnbc tip, we might use them on air or online. [ man ] ring ring... progresso this reduced sodium soup says it may help lower cholesterol, how does it work? you just have to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

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we wanted to spend a couple of days in washington and come back to rochester.

but we have been told the weather and we are stuck here. >> that woman is one of thousands of people who will be stuck today in new york. it could be days before the city's transportation system is up and running. the brooklyn battery tunnel was flooded from end to end just hours after it was closed. this picture shows water pouring into the entrance of that tunnel. water into at least seven tunnels under the east river. called the most devastating disaster in the history of that subway system. this photo is from hoboken, new jersey, and it shows water pouring into a path train. all service is suspended until it does a full damage assessment. the storm is also affecting air travel, laguardia, jfk, newark airport all closed indefinitely. more than 15,000 flights canceled so far. phil lebeau joins me with the latest on the transportation situation. you're at atlanta airport. the busiest airport usually in

the country. what's the status today with flights? what are airlines telling passengers? >> reporter: they're hoping to begin some flights on a very limited basis later tonight, chuck. i look up at the board, eight flights to newark, and they're canceled today and that's the delta flight. let me give you a rundown in terms of what's going on with the airports in the area. essentially, they're doing damage assessments this morning. by the way, the philadelphia airport is up and operational this morning, although to what degree we're finding out. expect some limited scheduling to begin later tonight or tomorrow. there is some flights going into d.c. and boston, damage there has been minimal. full service is at least a day away when you're talking about the new york area airports. as you mentioned at the top, more than 15,000 flights have been canceled because of sandy. that number, by the way, is expected to increase. airlines have been parking planes at airports around the

world. and that might start to change either later tonight or tomorrow morning with regard to those international flights. the airlines, by the way, at delta, they've been dealing with 75,000 people, chuck, that they have to rebook. those rebookings are going to extend at least through the weekend. and this heading says it all. the new york city subway system is 108 years old, but it has never faced a disaster as devastating as what we experienced last night. hurricane sandy wreaked havoc on our entire transportation system. and the reason that quote's important, chuck, that the the key to reopening the airports. you can't reopen the airports unless you can get the people who whork there, people with the tsa, flight controllers, if they can't get to work, you can't reopen the airport. >> what can you tell me about amtrak? >> same thing, although on a more limited basis, it's the

sections of amtrak, the track is in pretty good shape. other sections, they'll be checking for damage. once they have made that full assessment and they know they can make the runs all the way through, then you're going to see the schedule start to come back up. again, it's on a wait-and-see basis at this point. >> and daylight only now. we're getting all of these assessments. i guess this will have more definitive news in the afternoon. phil lebeau monitoring the situation for us at the airport. breaking news now, the new jersey turnpike authority just announced it has reopened the entire length now of the garden state parkway to traffic in both directions. and by the way, in case you're wondering, tolls will resume at 2:00 p.m. so it's free right now. rescue and cleanup operations will be a -- will still be tricky today with rain and wind, snow still hitting parts of the eastern united states, fema administrator craig fugate had this to say moments ago on the "today" show about recovery operations.

>> because it's still raining and now with this blizzard in west virginia, our concern is primarily life safety and then we'll get to the critical infrastructure. we've got hospitals, nursing homes impacted, power outages. the list of things is enormous. first thing is, keep people alive, keep people safe, rescue those in danger. >> well, in just one day, maryland was hit with driving rains from winds and snow. residents in ocean city evacuated, dozens of roads and bridges throughout the region remain closed this morning. joining me now is anthony brown. lieutenant governor brown, thanks for coming on this morning. give me an assessment, where do things stand in the state of maryland of power outages, bridges closed, open, et cetera. what can you tell me? >> okay. i think the worst of wind and rain is behind us. and while we continue on life safety operations and the continuation of government operations. right now maryland is recovering. so we've opened up all of our

bridges except for the bay bridge. that should be open later this morning. we have one evacuation in the eastern shore of residents in apartments and homes, we've got a swift water team down there and a building rescue and evacuation team down there. that one's pretty much under control. we've got about 320,000 homes and businesses without power. that's down from a high of about 360,000. so we are -- we are in a recovery mode, and with the wind and the rain, you know, the heaviest behind us, crews are out there restoring power, doing the assessment in our communities, and recovery is certainly underway. >> when it comes to the state of maryland and power outages, the first word that comes to peoples' mind it's pepco, how are they doing? >> doing well. we learned from lessons of the past. they have pre-positioned a lot

of out of state assets and right now the numbers are looking good. but we're not going to be satisfied until every maryland household and business has power restored. the governor and i were on a conference call with them this morning. they are actively engaged and so they're stepping up to the task. >> all right. now, we know yesterday you canceled early voting, what can you tell me today about early voting and when you hope to resume it. >> yeah, we're fairly confident that we'll resume early voting tomorrow. and that will be the governor's call. he'll make it later today. we'll be able to make up monday's early voting. we'll be able to do that on friday. now, whether we'll be able to make up today's, that's a decision that the governor's going to have to work through. but early voting should resume tomorrow in maryland. >> are you confident you'll be able to open every voting precinct and have it fully functional? >> on election day next week, we're very confident, in terms of early voting, that's the big challenge.

right now assessing our early voting locations to ensure they have power. looks like most of them do, and where they don't, we'll certainly bring in generators. but by next week, november 6th, there's high confidence level that, you know, most if not all of our precincts will be up. but, you know, pepco and the other utilities say that 90% should be restored by tomorrow. >> lieutenant governor anthony brown with the state of maryland. thanks for joining me this morning. >> we'll be right back, we've got msnbc's continuing coverage all morning long of what has been an historic storm and what will be a tough recovery effort. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] do you have the legal protection you need? at legalzoom, we've created a better place to turn for your legal matters. maybe you want to incorporate a business you'd like to start. or protect your family with a will or living trust. legalzoom makes it easy with step-by-step help

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lots to keep track of. keeping a close eye on midtown

manhattan when a construction crane came loose during the storm. that crane is still dangling 80 stories above the city. it's unclear how it might be brougt down safely. the fact it's still hanging there perhaps is a relief to some who feared with the increased winds it was inevitable it was going to fall last night. it has not fallen. elsewhere in new york city, the nyu medical center lost primary and backup power during the storm, forced the evacuation of 215 patients to nearby hospitals. well, it was a record 13-foot storm surge that hit southern manhattan, dumped water into the construction site at ground zero. look at those images. you can see also the uss "intrepid" as water fills the west side highway. in washington, d.c., federal and local governments will remain closed today along with the courts and public schools. a financial toll from this disaster that could reach $10

billion or $20 billion, wall street will have an extra day to absorb that figure now that the new york stock exchange has been shut down for the second straight day. the first time the weather has closed the exchange for two consecutive days since the blizzard of 1888. cnbc's becky quick joins me now. becky, let's talk about the cost of this storm. >> yeah. >> what will you be watching tomorrow when we assume the markets will reopen, at least in some form or another. i assume it's all the insurance stock, is that what's going to get hit first? >> we've been watching some of that trading taking place overseas, watching in europe on some of the markets there. insurers, it eninsures other big insurance companies, they were actually trading higher today even though thaur going to have exposure to the storm. and that's because this is kind of the sick twisted logic of how some of these things work. insurers may trade up on some of this news because when you have something like this, it means they get to raise prices for

premiums next time around. when you see your house get flooded, you're much more likely, or your neighbor's house, you are much more likely to go out and buy flood insurance. you mentioned the numbers are $10 billion and $20 billion, those are the numbers right now, these are made up numbers, a guess based on storms of the past. and if you ask any of these analysts, they will admit this is our best guess at this point. one analyst we talked to, though, said she's also guessing that about half of these losses will not be insured because there was so much flood damage and flood insurance -- i'm sorry the national flood insurance program does cover that, but for people who have homeowners insurance, that is not covered under that. and this is going to be significant losses and big hits for consumers. >> this is a huge issue. people don't pay attention the gap between homeowners and flood insurance, it's always been a huge -- a huge gap when it comes to people -- >> people on the east coast are going to pay much more attention to that after this storm. >> they are. because you assume you're not in

a flood zone and then all of a sudden you get hit with this. anyway. becky quick, thanks very much. "the dailyrundown" will be back in 30 seconds. this is from near washington, d.c. this is our channel 4 affiliate here, wrc, their chopper. those are, i believe, the area refinery if i'm not mistaken if i'm looking there. and you can see all the flood, i'm not 100% sure what we're looking at, but i'm pretty sure

that's the case, anyway. we're just showing you live photos and you can see the water issues, and of course, we're very worried here about a rising potomac river. we'll have flood issues in the next couple of days. parts of long island began flooding 12 hours before sandy made landfall, forcing residents to scramble for higher ground. live in long beach along long island's south shore. and i know you're stuck, i believe, you're cut off. tell me what's going on there this morning, walk me through everything. >> reporter: yeah, we've been in this situation essentially since yesterday afternoon because the flooding started very early, started around 4:00 p.m. and what happened right away is that all of the entrances and exits to our hotel got flooded, so we were separated. i was in the hotel and my crew was outside the hotel and they had trouble getting back in. and now we're stuck in the sand, all of our vehicles are because all of the streets are beached.

these are city streets, but you can see this is a beach here. it's about a foot worth of sand brought in. and forgive me for wincing and turning away, but we're getting blasted by the sand. the wind is still very, very high here. when the high tide came in yesterday during the height of the storm, the ocean turned into a raging river, one resident said it was like the colorado river and that it had this real fury to it. and what it did was move several, several blocks inland. and when it receded, left all the sand behind also a lot of damage, property damage. these are people's homes, we have flooding at least one story up. these cars, these vehicles you're seeing, they weren't parked there, they were brought in by the force of that water. and of course, you see these garages have been reduced to wood and beams and the like. so that's a lot of the damage we've seen. we've also seen damage to rooftops, roofs peeled away, shingles peeled away and the like. a lot of power loss. we lost power about 900,000

people here are without power and power authorities warning people it could be seven to ten days before they get it back. another warning for residents here on long island is not to drink the water. and this is all very fluid, i seem to have lost you because i can't hear anything. >> no, no, no, i hope you haven't. can you ask your camera guy to pan back over to those cars? because what you just said, it was one of those -- the cars were not there and were not put there, they were pushed there by the water. look at that. i think at first when people see that, i want to reemphasize. say it again, mara. those cars were moved there by the weather. they were moved there by the weather. >> reporter: hey, chuck? >> yeah, go ahead, mara. >> reporter: hey, i can hear you again very faintly, and yeah, absolutely, just to reiterate, and that's essentially what we were concerned about yesterday. the parking lot that our vehicles were parked in flooded in minutes. you could see the water from the ocean rushing in. i mean really was like a rushing river and that's why we had to

move far away where we thought our vehicles were safe. and within that time, just those couple of minutes in moving the vehicle trying to get back, the entire first floor of our hotel was flooded. so this happened very, very quickly just as officials warned it would and that's why this area was under mandatory evacuation, they were very concerned about this quick flooding and would people get out once it started? and it proved to be exactly what they predicted. >> all right. mara, thanks very much. well, nearly 3 million people are without power and at least three people are dead and that's just in the state of new jersey. after hurricane sandy battered the state's 80-mile-per-hour winds, destroyed boardwalks along the jersey shore, which is part of the district that congressman chris smith represents. he's on the phone with me now. congressman, we've heard some updates from governor christie. what have you seen? what don't you know that we in the public should know about

your district. >> well, we're still in emergency mode. there are people who may still be in serious jeopardy. but by and large, people did evacuate, they listened to governor christie and they got off the barrier islands to a large extent, and in my area, belmar, by the state, those areas have been absolutely devastated. we have 2.2 million people without power in the state. 500,000 in monmouth and ocean counties alone. and the streets filled with sand, debris, boardwalk, which has moved inland. and we're talking about a very treacherous situation. and the power lines, which have been cut by fallen trees remain a very serious problem. so anyone who sees a power line or looks like, don't even go near it. so, you know, we're still in the mode of trying to ensure that public health and safety are protected. the good news is that the water remains as far as we can tell, the water systems have held up. we're watching water in the

barrier islands very closely. but we're not out of the woods yet. and thankfully at daylight, the rain has abated to a large extent and the cleanup now begins. >> all right. so do you feel like you've accounted for everybody in your district? and if you haven't, what is the -- is there a way that people outside who are wondering about friends and relatives that they haven't heard from, what's the best way to find that out? >> probably the best way is, you know, knock on their door. make a phone call as you have a cell phone because most of the land lines are down. call the police if you think there may be an emergency that has done unattended to. and everyone needs to be thinking. as soon as we get out of this emergency mode, we go right into repair and obviously that's where fema and, you know, the insurance needs to be accessed as quickly as possible. because, you know, we're

approaching winter. so the sooner the rebuilding starts, sooner people are back in their homes. >> are you satisfied so far, again, the coordination with federal, state, and local as you just noted. recovery really hasn't started yet. >> no -- >> that begins today. >> that begins today, and you know, all around in my district as i've been, i'm in my office right now, you know, heading out to belmar and to other parts, some of the shelters. and again, the oem people are the heroes, and governor christie, the cornerbacks are the governors. they're the ones in state after state who coordinate and in our state and that's the only one i can speak with authority, christie has done a magnificent job. we have a situation where, you know, on saturday he pulled everyone together and said don't, you know, in any way let down your guard. this thing is coming. and it's going to be devastating. and that may have resulted in saving many people's lives. >> all right.

congressman chris smith there who represents many parts of the most devastated parts of the state of new jersey. congressman, thanks for joining me on the phone this morning. >> chuck, thank you very much. >> lower manhattan saw a record storm surge and sent water over the sea wall and flooded the water front of the financial district. anne thompson is live for me this morning at battery park at the southern tip of manhattan, a familiar scene probably to many tourists in america. we almost lost you there for a minute. and looks like still not great weather conditions. what do you see this morning? >> reporter: no, chuck, it is absolutely miserable. very strong wind gusts, as strong as some of the gusts we saw last night. and let me show you what they have done. look right behind me here. this is a tree that fell over during the night. and this is what manhattan -- >> the wind there is hurting us and our ability sometimes to get

the satellite sound. it was a problem we had this morning. we will come back to anne thompson when we feel that gust of wind goes back down and we can hear everything from her in a moment. by the way, i wanted to let you know what those live aerials were. i want to show them back up here in washington, d.c. what you were seeing, that was the sewage treatment plant. now we also have more live photos from wrc, south of d.c. metro, by the way, has announced limited restoration of bus and rail service. most service will be on a sunday schedule and that begins at 2:00 p.m. today. normal service for all of this we expect to resume in the washington, d.c. area on wednesday morning. all right. we will try to check back in with anne thompson, hope the wind died down a little bit. again, that's what's cutting off the audio, if you will, that's a problem we had this morning with a bunch of other correspondents on the "today" show. anyway, our panel will be here next after the break, we're digging into what the storm means, there is an election that

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by the way, we do expect mayor bloomberg to update us on the situation. it was a press conference that was supposed to be at 9:00, then 9:45, and they pushed it back another 15 minutes. we will cover it live when it happens. meanwhile, let's get into a little bit of politics. the calendar says election is a week away. the reality is that neither candidate for president may hit the campaign trail for good for another couple of days leaving precious little time to persuade voters in this ridiculously close election. with the campaign largely on hold, president obama's hunkered down at the white house, that's what he did monday. and he prepared the nation for what could be sandy's long lasting impact.

>> public needs to prepare for the fact this is going to take a long time for us to clean up. the good news is, we will clean up, and we will get through this. >> that was before it hit, clearly that's what's going to be the case. this is going to be a long cleanup, days, perhaps stretches into longer than a week. the president insisted, though, the campaign was not on his mind right now. >> i'm worried about the impact on families and i'm worried about the impact on our first responders. i'm worried about the impact on our economy. and on transportation. the election will take care of itself next week. >> meanwhile, governor romney tried to walk the fine line, balancing campaigning still in ohio and iowa, but also compassion from storm victims in ohio. he appealed to put politics aside. >> we've faced these kind of challenges before, and it's interesting to see how americans come together. and this looks like another time

we need to come together all across the country, even here in ohio. >> still, romney did not entirely put aside his campaign talking point. >> early voting has begun. get out there and vote, i see a voter right there. get out and vote, i know your vote counts just as much as if cast on election day as if it's cast early. but all the media follows how much early voting is going on and they look at your zip code and where you live and make an estimate of whether you're a republican or democrat and they decide whether we're ahead or falling behind. >> not always that you hear the candidate themselves talk about the literal issue of why early voting matters to political coverage. anyway. sometimes he's very literal. both candidates canceled campaign events today. mitt romney planned to spend the day in new hampshire, instead romney is going to hold what his campaign is calling a storm relief event. it's taking place in ohio.

paul ryan will drop by campaign offices in hudson and lacrosse, wisconsin. joe biden and bill clinton are also on the stump for president obama. let's bring in our panel, former rnc chairman michael steele, former democratic senator blanche lincoln, and washington bureau chief susan page. susan, let me start with you. disaster politics. it's a fact of life. it's what can re-elect or unelect governors, but now it's potentially impacting the presidential race. any idea how this is going to impact? >> if you want to look at an opportunity for president, look at "morning joe," governor christie of new jersey, saying the president and fema are doing an outstanding job. i mean, that's the upside, potential political upside for a president. obama is not out there on the campaign trail like any candidate. he's in the situation room, being briefed overnight. >> right.

this is an opportunity for him to be the president, to be the commander in chief, to make that case. if there's a problem with fema's response, if there's a glitch that develops, but i think a big potential here for president obama in this very, very close race. >> senator lincoln, it's interesting to see when does the president get back on the campaign trail? you would assume new york city looks like it's -- and long island just devastated. under any circumstance that seems to call for a presidential visit at some point. you've got to assume that's going to happen in the next few days. >> i think so. and i think that susan's right. he's got a great opportunity. without a doubt for any credibility either candidate has got to kind of slow down and, you know, put the campaign on hold and really focus on what's happened to the people who have suffered. and i think that's exactly what they're doing. >> mitt romney today, michael steele holding this relief event, it's in ohio, so it's not, you know, you can't separate the politics from it.

i was on one hand i get it, on the other hand, you're like, boy, it's ohio, you're walking a tricky line. got to be everything he says is one of those things because he's in a no -- he's got nothing to do. >> nothing to do, and he should have very little to say, quite honestly. this is probably a photo op mostly for the local community, politically speaking, it's not for national consumption. the president commands that stage. i think for the president, a lot of it's baked in for him, it's expected he does this well. . . and gets on top of them. you're right, the reality for him is he could wind up fumbling the ball. that's not happened so far. the president is in the driver's seat here. romney's taken that second stage off in the corner, he's still in a very important state for his campaign and he's got the visual going in front of those voters. >> when i come back, i want to talk about a couple of things involved with the campaign, including the fact that, guess

what? we may not have polling for a week. . our panel is sticking with me. we'll be right back. more stills of this disaster as we go to break. i was in the ambulance and i was told to call my next of kin. at 33 years old, i was having a heart attack. now i'm on a bayer aspirin regimen. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. i didn't know this could happen so young. take control, talk to your doctor.

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let's bring back the panel, michael steele, susan page, and i have a question about whether the election could get delayed. michael steele, you've been a are the pa of state government. the states run elections. >> yes. >> congress mandates when the press election is, what i was told that greg fugate, whatever you have to do, you can get reimbursed for that.

>> that was the first thing they needed to know. everything else is -- >> they want to know who pays for it. if it's paid, fine. >> particularly in states like new york and new jersey that have had such a high level of devastation, they're going to reconfigure their precinct areas where they send their voters. the key thing is to get the word out to the voters that you're not going go here, now you're going to go over there. >> you recall a time in arkansas where stuff had to be done and moved. >> you're right. the key for those county clerks they want to know who's paying for it. >> the other thing is whether you're rural or whether you're in inner city areas is the transportation. the transportation in new york is going to be very difficult, at best, i think, and with the metro and the other issues. >> i felt two things. lots of provisional ballots. perhaps longer poll open and closing times, flexibility

there, that's my guess of what you will see localities do. >> will we know the results on election nights if we have absentee ballots and some which haven't been counted. it makes it more likely that we'll have a long, perhaps endless election night. >> think we were headed to that before sandy. >> i speak all of us, shameless plugs to all these first responders. >> absolutely. >> especially that coast guard rescue helicopter that went out and rescued 14 people from the hms, what it was doing out at sea. >> it's what these people do. this is what they do. >> utility workers. >> and all of the utility workers, be patient with them. i've got no power, and bring them a cup of coffee. >> that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." stick with msnbc for continuing coverage of sandy and michael bloomberg's press conference will start in minutes. coming up, chris jansing takes over. bye-bye.

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